BASC high­lights ben­e­fits of wildfowling as sea­son kicks off

As we en­ter the wildfowling sea­son, BASC chair­man, Peter Glenser, has ex­tolled the virtues of the old­est sub-type of our sport.

“Wildfowling is one of our old­est shoot­ing sports,” he says. “Wild­fowlers are renowned for be­ing cus­to­di­ans of the en­vi­ron­ment and have op­er­ated sus­tain­ably for gen­er­a­tions.

“BASC’s roots are firmly em­bed­ded in wildfowling and from those roots, first laid down with Stan­ley Dun­can and the leg­endary black hut, we have grown. First into WAGBI and even­tu­ally to the as­so­ci­a­tion we are to­day.

“Through that jour­ney, wildfowling has re­mained at the heart of our or­gan­i­sa­tion. To­day, the ben­e­fits are huge. Wild­fowlers pro­vide over 600,000 con­ser­va­tion days per year. They have in­vested in ex­cess of £3 mil­lion in se­cur­ing de­clin­ing coastal wet­lands, and wild­fowlers work in part­ner­ship with statu­tory agen­cies to pro­tect threat­ened habi­tats and species.

“We are de­lighted that we start this sea­son with the ex­pan­sion of our ded­i­cated wildfowling team. James Green will start as head of wildfowling next week and Shane Robin­son has al­ready be­gun his role as the new wildfowling of­fi­cer.

“BASC mem­bers who would like to try wildfowling for the first time or try wildfowling in a new area can find op­por­tu­ni­ties in our up­dated wildfowling per­mit scheme book­let. Shoot straight and have a safe sea­son.”